Pay Attention, 007: The World’s Most Famous Aston Martin Lands at Villa D’Este

Although gorgeous from every angle, the Aston Martin DB5 is not a particularly rare car. A little more than 1000 coupes and convertibles were produced between 1963 and 1965—there were even a dozen shooting brake station wagons from coachbuilder Harold Radford. So to see one at the beyond-exclusive Concorso d’Eleganza at the Villa d’Este hotel in Italy was, initially, a surprise. This is an event where production runs that get into double figures are often regarded as making a car practically commonplace.

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But this was no ordinary DB5. Entered into a class called Hollywood on the Lake: Stars of the Silver Screen, it was once driven by the most famous spy in the world. The clue is in the “007” license plate. This was the car used in the James Bond flicks Goldfinger and Thunderball, and it features the gadgetry that made those films so memorable. In addition to rotating license plates—which we imagine would only have only briefly confused somebody looking for a silver Aston being driven by a man in a tuxedo—it has the aperture for the bulletproof screen that rises behind the rear window, a smokescreen pipe next to the exhaust outlets, and a fold-down rear light to deploy oil in the path of any pursuers. Close inspection of the roof also reveals an off-center sunroof aperture that was designed to work with the passenger-side ejector seat, a feature that we’ve all really longed for at least once. Although we couldn’t see them, we were assured the front turn signals do still fold down to reveal the barrels of replica .303 machine guns, and there was even a clip-in version of the tire-slashing wheel center cap that is used to devastating effect on a Mustang convertible in Goldfinger.

It turns out that there are several original Bond-used DB5s out there, but this one, with chassis number 1486/R, was used for many of the driving sequences in both Goldfinger and Thunderball and had the full set of lethal accessories fitted to it as it later served as a publicity car. It was privately owned in the United States by radio broadcaster Jerry Lee for more than 40 years and was reportedly parked in his living room before being sold to its current owner in 2010. We hope he gets as much amusement from it as we would.